Phonological awareness is one of the strongest predictors of success in learning to read. Recent research findings indicate that the development of proficiency in the first language (L1) reading structures may significantly influence reading acquisition in a second language (L2). However, little is yet known of the predictive relationship of phonemic awareness and reading ability or disability for low performing pre-literate children who are exposed to more than one language during the reading acquisition phase of development. Existing evidence suggests the crossover of phonemic skills as measured by their application to reading in L2 suggests that these skills are not language specific. This paper reports on the initial efforts of a 3-year longitudinal study of the effect of phonological skills intervention to promote cross-language transfer of reading skills where a large-scale assessment of preliterate kindergartners' phonological awareness was conducted in Spanish and English. Results reveal significant correlation between English and Spanish language phonological assessment tasks, which were modifications of those widely used and reported in the literature. (Contains 17 references and 3 tables.) (KFT)

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